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We collect and hold personal information relating to our pupils and may also receive information about them from their previous school, local authority and/or the Department for Education (DfE). We use this personal data to:

support our pupils’ learning

monitor and report on their progress

provide appropriate pastoral care; and

assess the quality of our services

This information will include their contact details, national curriculum assessment results, attendance information, any exclusion information, where they go after they leave us and personal characteristics such as their ethnic group, any special educational needs they may have as well as relevant medical information. For pupils enrolling for post 14 qualifications, the Learning Records Service will give us the unique learner number (ULN) and may also give us details about your learning or qualifications.

We are legally obliged to share information with other agencies (e.g. Police, Health, Local Authority) when there are safety concerns about children.

Connecting Care

Connecting Care brings together information sharing across health and local government in the south west via an online portal. It is not new sharing – it is simply sharing done in a more effective way.

Your local authority is a partner in Connecting Care, a project which links social care information with health information. Schools cannot access Connecting Care but they may share information that could appear on Connecting Care.

The Connecting Care Local Record is a new way for staff who are directly involved in a child’s care to share relevant information about their care in a way that is secure, controlled, consistent and efficient. It allows health and local council staff who are directly involved in a child’s care access to a summary of existing records, such as those held by the GP, hospital or social care provider. Staff who are directly involved in a child’s care, will only access their record with a legitimate reason, and if they can, they will ask your permission before they look at it.

The Connecting Care Record will contain information on:

Who is involved in a child’s care

Any allergies they have

Medications

Recent appointments (but only whether they were attended, this will not include any information about what was discussed at that appointment)

Diagnoses

The Connecting Care record will not contain information about conversations with the GP or any information on sensitive subjects such as sexual health. Staff who have a responsibility for designing services to improve children’s general well-being will also have access to relevant information from the record. The detail that staff can see is linked to the job they do. If for their job they don’t need to see specific information, they cannot see it.

The DfE may also share pupil level personal data that we supply to them, with third parties. This will only take place where legislation allows it to do so and it is in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Decisions on whether DfE releases this personal data to third parties are subject to a robust approval process and are based on a detailed assessment of who is requesting the data, the purpose for which it is required, the level and sensitivity of data requested and the arrangements in place to store and handle the data. To be granted access to pupil level data, requestors must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.